Author Note

Hello everyone and welcome to another chapter of Cursed Eyes.

The Pein invasion arc is upon us, finally. It will happen in two or three chapters at most. The actual amount shall vary, depending on my ability to finish everything in two chapters, thus requiring an eventual third and last chapter.

Plenty of new followers since the last chapter, which is always a boon for me and for my work and for that I appreciate it. Also, a few reviews came as well, which I shall answer right away.

HyperA2019 – At some point, it will. But I won't spoil it in advance.

Power of Magic – Orochimaru in this story tends to be the villain that's always there, but merely observing the situation. He enjoys seeing the wheels in motion, in his words, ever since he invaded Konoha together with Suna. For now, he's just content in seeing Akatsuki going down one by one and if Akatsuki manages to win a few rounds, let's just say the wicked smile on his face won't vanish. I can already state that he won't do anything for now, merely observe and appreciate the chaos ensured. As to the cloaked individuals, well, most could guess their identities easily enough.

Doge121 – Indeed, but I shall cross that bridge when I come to it.

Now that that's out of the way, here is the chapter.

Cursed Eyes

Chapter 33 – Pain Invasion Part I

Beta: Scheffinator

Amegakure was a sight opposite of Konohagakure.

While Konoha's land was filled with nature, bright blue lakes and small buildings, Ame was more like a cosmopolitan city with tall skyscrapers, filled with pipes and antennas. While Konoha was filled with a green environment, Ame's buildings were of similar color, gray. The rain as per usual bombarded the city, in a never-ending fashion. Though, to the man with orange spiky hair wearing black robes with red clouds standing on top of the village's tallest skyscraper, everything was made by design. The pipes…the antennas…the never-ending rain…it served an unique purpose. It allows the unknown village leader Pain to literally observe and stay in tune with literally everything and everyone around the place he calls today his home.

"Nagato, he has arrived." The man in question turned as he saw many tiny pieces of paper gather in one place, before a woman formed, with purple hair and lifeless eyes.

"Understood, Konan." As they looked towards the room they were now in, Pain and Konan laid eyes on the other Akatsuki member wearing the orange spiral mask.

"The Ichibi Jinchuuriki managed to escape, thanks to Konoha's timely arrival." Pein's Rinnegan eyes bored into Tobi's only visible Sharingan eye. Tobi's voice is now completely different from the childish persona that he normally used. "Also, Deidara is no longer among us, I'm afraid." Konan, for her part, opened her mouth slightly at the troubling news. Their numbers were slowly but surely diminishing and every time, due to Konoha effectively thinning out Akatsuki's numbers, one by one.

"I'm assuming that the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki was responsible, then?" Obito simply nodded as the three took their respective seats in order to establish their next course of action. "It's high time I pay Konoha a visit."

"A good idea…" Tobi placed both hands under his chin as he continued. "The timing, though, works against us as you failed to kill Jiraiya…the village will no doubt have some plan in motion. We can't drag this out any longer than we have."

"Pein is invincible…no matter what happens, or who appears before us, we will capture the Nine-Tails." There was no emotion in Konan's voice as she said so.

"Aside from the Kyuubi, we are still due to capture the Hachibi and the Ichibi. Kisame has not reported on his hunting of the Hachibi, but I have no doubt that he will succeed. Leave the Ichibi to me." Pain nodded as he turned to Konan.

"Understood…then I shall pay Konoha a visit…Konan, please make the necessary arrangements." As Pein stood up, the five other paths of Pein lined up behind him.

===In Konoha===

Naruto and Kakashi had quickly returned to Konoha with Kiba and Hinata in tow.

Seeing the state of Naruto's health, Hinata had volunteered to clean some of his wounds and bruises from the blast. His Jonin outfit was quite damaged, but at least he had another set to use. The two Jonin and two Chuunin reported on the successful mission to the Hokage and Jiraiya. Sunagakure had also sent a letter to the Hokage, appreciating their timely assistance in protecting not only Gaara, but also Gaara's sister Temari and two other Genin. After that, Tsunade dismissed Kiba and Hinata, while Shizune worked on the other injuries that Naruto had sustained. Tsunade, though, snorted at two of her best Jonin.

"Seriously, you two…standing close to a suicide bomber…I expected better than such reckless behavior. If it wasn't for Susanoo, you both would have been dead."

Kakashi and Naruto were surprised to hear said criticism, though Kakashi just scratched the back of his head and eye smiled.

"His chakra was non-existent, but that hidden mouth in his chest caught us both by surprise, no doubt." Tsunade snorted at the comment, but Naruto stood up to his brother figure.

"The bastard had kept us at long range since the beginning...it was quite annoying to tell the truth…ouch…" Shizune smiled at the shift in demeanor once she fixed a nasty injury in his right arm. "…not so tight, Shizune."

"Sorry, Naruto-kun…all better now." Naruto looked dubious at the need for such force, but he figured that it was payback for the time he didn't want to tell her about Danzo. Plus, the slight smile in vindication was a dead giveaway. Itsuko, hidden in the room, as part of the Hokage's ANBU detail, concurred that her boyfriend deserved it. She understood his reasoning at the time, for wanting to keep Shizune from ROOT's clutches, but he at least could have handled the situation better than he did. Hell, even she was mad at him for his stunt back then. Still, her worry for him only escalated as she saw the state in which he walked inside the Hokage's Office. Of course, the fox would heal any meaningful injury, but these were S-ranked shinobi they were talking about…without Susanoo, Kyuubi or not, her boyfriend would be dead.

She stopped that train of thought too late as she felt the sudden ache in her chest at the notion.

"Right…well, with Deidara gone, there is no less Akatsuki to worry about." Tsunade concluded with a smile, though she saw that neither Jonin shared her enthusiasm. "Something else happened that you failed to mention before, Kakashi?"

The silver haired Jonin turned to Naruto and saw him nod, before turning to the village leader and Jiraiya.

"Tsunade-sama, throughout the fight, despite Akatsuki normally working in pairs, we had only engaged against Deidara. The other one, brown hair and orange spiral mask, just stood in the sidelines, observing." Tsunade nodded, since this was mentioned in their report. "Of course, it was Deidara himself who urged the man named Tobi against engaging, but even so, it did strike as odd that they wouldn't use all opportunities available to capture Naruto." The news was indeed troubling and Kakashi was right…to this day, neither member of the organization would think to waste such an opportunity. "Furthermore, it was Naruto who realized that this foe, in particular, had the Sharingan, Tsunade-sama." Jiraiya, Tsunade and Shizune gasped at the mention.

"Explain, Naruto…right now." The blond Sharingan user nodded.

"As Kakashi-nii had explained, he indeed has the Sharingan, a fully developed one. Furthermore, this Tobi that Kakashi mentioned behaved quite childishly throughout the fight, but for a few seconds, I was able to notice a complete shift in behavior. He vanished right after the fight and I just couldn't follow his position anymore, so it's not any Ninjutsu technique I can tell." Tsunade gathered air and released it, while placing both hands beneath her chin. After that, she turned to the pervert next to her.

"You never mentioned this one's existence, Jiraiya. If he has the Sharingan, then for sure, he's…" Before Tsunade could conclude, Jiraiya had simply negated.

"No, Nagato is the leader of the organization, of that my spy network is sure about it. Whoever this guy is, though, he is indeed off anyone's radar. And the Sharingan is quite puzzling…Itachi killed the entire clan, there is no Uchiha left alive."

Naruto felt the beginnings of a deep growling in the deep pits of his stomach and it wasn't hunger.

"Another strange part is the fact that only one is kept visible…" Naruto pondered out aloud, making everyone turn to him. "The orange spiral mask only had one hole for the right eye." Tsunade hummed at the notion.

"Shizune could check the records for the former active Uchiha shinobi to see if anyone had only one eye, but it won't help us much…the records had proven that all of the living clan members were indeed killed by Itachi. Also, no Uchiha member is listed in the nuke-nin section. Hell, I'd bet that the clan dealt with those that even thought of going astray." Kakashi looked solemn at that, remembering the one person who managed to smack some sense into his pitiful former self. The shock then came with the image that would forever haunt his dreams…worse than seeing his father on the ground after committing suicide…the image of his one and only technique piercing the chest of his teammate and the look in her eyes of dread…and…

A second later, he realized that he was inside the Hokage's Office. Kakashi, then, looked at his little brother figure, wondering if Naruto's Sharingan would one day give him the same ever-lasting pain.

"Well, whoever this new foe is, Shizune and I shall dig into the records to see his possible identity. Now, you two are to get some rest."

Naruto and Kakashi both nodded, before each vanished in a shunshin, but not before Naruto waved towards Itsuko's shadow.

===With Kakashi===

The scarecrow Jonin placed both hands inside his pockets as he walked towards Kasumi's house.

His outfit was slightly ragged from Deidara's bombing. As he walked, however, something about what Naruto had said in the Hokage's Office lingered in his mind. Something about this new foe from Akatsuki kept lingering…as if he knew something, though the answer still remained elusive. Kasumi was busy placing some of her clothes to dry outside, when she saw Kakashi walking towards her. She was about to greet him with a smile, relieved since he had left yet again to face the Akatsuki, when she saw that look on his face. It's been some time since he last had that look.

It was the same look he had every time he went by the memorial stone to beat himself over what happened with Obito and Rin. A look that she had stopped seeing, when they started their relationship.

"Glad you returned unscathed…I was worried. Is Naruto-kun okay?" The silver-haired Jonin looked up and nodded with a smile and his peculiar wave. That in itself sent all the wrong signals for her.

"He's fine…that Iwa bomber Deidara kept us on our toes, but we managed to deal with him." Kakashi, then, looked straight at his girlfriend's white hollow eyes with narrowed eyebrows. "What…is there something on my face?"

"Who are you trying to fool, here, Kakashi?" Kakashi's smile faded, as Kasumi released a sigh, before taking his arm and dragging him towards her house's porch. "That look on your face brought me back down memory lane…of a man lost in the past, mourning about his actions." He said nothing, while her all-seeing eyes narrowed in on his lack of expression. "What happened on this mission? You weren't like this when you left." The silver haired Jonin just placed his hand over his covered Sharingan eye, before turning to the clearly concerned Kasumi.

"Right after the mad bomber Deidara from Iwa was defeated, Naruto managed to take a look at the man's partner…"

"And..."

"Naruto saw the Sharingan in his right socket." Kasumi choked, now realizing what has made her boyfriend behave like this.

"Wow…but, you don't think he's…"

"No!" Kakashi's denial came out before she could finish her wondering. "Obito is dead…half of his body was heavily crushed by that boulder and with his last breath of life, he gave me the Sharingan."

"Then, why are you like this?" Kakashi didn't know the answer to that question.

"…I don't know…ever since our report to the Hokage, it's like I'm having an out of body experience, so to speak. My mind is going back to the event of his death repeatedly. I'm stuck in that time…"

"Ah…Kakashi…" Kasumi felt for him, she truly did.

To see this man, her man, go through such lengths throughout his troubled life…no matter what happened, it was almost impossible for him to find any sort of closure.

"If that wasn't bad enough…" She then focused on his trembling eye as he spoke. "My mind also goes back to what happened to Rin for reasons I just can't fathom."

It took him a while to realize her comforting hand on his thigh. The subtle sign of affection ended up being quite effective as it jolted him out of his inner turmoil. With someone as Kakashi who got used to bottling things up inside to cope, she learned quickly how to best call his attention. Warm hugs…hair caressing…and even cold hard tough love methods wouldn't solve anything. It would only serve to push him away. However, a subtle and warm hand on his thigh worked wonders, at least to calm his nerves and yank him away from being stuck in the haunted past.

"You and I both know it's pointless to say that what happened to Obito wasn't your fault…" Kakashi nodded. At the time, he was far too arrogant and thought himself unbeatable, which led to everything going wrong later on. "However, in regards to Rin…Kirigakure was to blame, entirely. But I don't think I need to tell you this, as we had gone over this, already." Once again, she's right and Kakashi could only chuckle. Even if she's right, it didn't mean that he managed to make any form of sense about the number of tricks his mind is playing right now.

Obito is dead…so is Rin.

Tragedies the both of them, but why did Kakashi start remembering their deaths after the man from Akatsuki with the Sharingan was revealed by Naruto in the Hokage's Office?

"Perhaps, it's best if I rest for now…a good rest may do wonders for me." She saw him get up and get inside her house. She did so as well, before following him inside.

"A good idea if I heard any…and I think I shall join you." Kasumi had realized that her boyfriend was now much better when she heard the peculiar perverted giggle.

"Oh ho…perhaps we can do…"

With a smile and her eyes rolling, she commented, before closing the door behind them.

"Would you please stop mentioning the scenes from that damn book, jeez!"

===With Naruto===

Two days after their return from the fight against Deidara, one Uzumaki Naruto opened his eyes and turned to see his girlfriend, sleeping peacefully.

The night was somewhat clear tonight and a gentle breeze would zip through her lone apartment window. Getting up slowly and soundlessly, so as not to wake his ANBU girlfriend, Naruto had quickly fixed some late night tea, before taking a seat close to the window and observing the view from her apartment. It wasn't like his old apartment, which was taller than the other buildings, so he had a good view of the village from it. Her apartment was located in between a series of buildings close to each other. However, looking up, he could see the night sky with the moon, covered by a few clouds here and there.

"Why didn't you tell the Hokage about the intel from Uchiha Itachi?" As soon as the voice reached his ears, he closed his eyes.

Upon opening it, he was face to face with the fox, lying down without a care in the world.

"I take it you're the one who woke me up to talk, then, fox…" He could see the full set of teeth opening in response to his question.

"Call me curious, my host…I just wish to know. Uchiha Itachi had explained to you about Uchiha Madara being the hidden leader of the Akatsuki. He went into detail about how Madara approached him to aid him in killing the Uchiha Clan, in exchange for his recruitment to the organization. Now that Madara shows himself, you merely express to the Hokage and the others that you saw the fully developed Sharingan in the man's right eye socket." Naruto just observed the fox talking. "You know, though, this man's identity. So, tell me, Naruto…why didn't you tell them about Madara?" Naruto pondered about what to say, really. It's not like he could keep any secret from the fox, nor did he know anything the fox did not, but…

"All Itachi had said to me back then was that this man who helped him kill the Uchiha Clan introduced himself as Uchiha Madara. But, you and I both know that if he was indeed Madara, then you wouldn't be as calm as you are right now."

"Hmmm, so your assumption is tied to my lack of reaction towards his presence? Correct me If I'm wrong, but I never did express to you my past experiences with that imbecile."

"He controlled you, did he not? With the Mangenkyo Sharingan. Plus, I have studied plenty about Uchiha Madara in the Uchiha archives to know how he viewed the great Kyuubi no Kitsune."

That made the low growl come up, but then the fox stopped.

"Yes, well, it's not something I plan to keep from you…indeed, my skin crawls every time I hear of that name. So, you don't believe him to be Uchiha Madara."

"No, I don't…from what I had read, Madara wouldn't ever feel the need to keep up a fake persona act, much less let Deidara do whatever he pleased. The Uchiha patriarc wouldn't tolerate being on the sidelines while others did the fighting."

"Oh, do I detect worship in your voice, my host? You would learn it best from speaking so highly of such an atrocious imbecile in my presence."

Naruto detected the high intensity of killing intent that the fox could utter in a single second. Thus, he was used to it by now.

"Nothing of the sort, though you know that pretty much all my fire prowess came after studying his material. Plus, the man is dead, fox. Senju Hashirama killed him in their last fight. There is no way that Itachi could be telling the truth about this Tobi person being Uchiha Madara. No, that would be the wrong thing to say. I don't think that Itachi himself actually believed that he was Uchiha Madara. Perhaps, this was something not even he managed to find out, before his passing. " Naruto actually respected Itachi, not Madara. The elder Uchiha, whose eyes Naruto inherited, managed to plan many steps ahead, but this was perhaps too much for him alone…to find out, while working for Akatsuki, while at the same time acting as a double agent for Konoha.

"It may be so, but you still haven't answered my question. Even if you don't believe him to be Madara, why didn't you share this information with the Hokage?"

"I had only shared the facts that I know to be the truth…that Tobi has the Sharingan, at least in one of the eye sockets. Aside from that, what sort of proof would I have…that Itachi told me himself? Not something credible, even if Itachi was who he was." The fox nodded, agreeing with his host. "I get the feeling, though, that whoever this Tobi person is, I get the feeling that he won't take long in showing himself fully, when he attempts to capture us. Then, we can make sure if he is who Itachi says he is."

"I see…well, it shall not be long before the leaders come to you….come to us. There's not many left, I assume. Now, I shall resume my overdue nap."

Naruto snorted as that was codeword for him to let the nine-tailed fox be and go back to the outside world. Closing his eyes and opening up again, he was once more observing the moon up in the sky. It's not like he was being deceitful to the Hokage and the village. However, openly saying that somehow Uchiha Madara has risen from the grave to exert his vengeance just would do more harm than good right now. Aside from that, Naruto's thoughts shifted to the others still alive from the organization, namely the one who defeated Jiraiya in battle and would have killed him, had Naruto not intervened at the right time.

That man is powerful…that much Naruto could tell by feeling for his immense chakra back then.

"Can't sleep?" Naruto turned, before a pair of arms enveloped him from behind.

"It's not that…just going through some information. When the fox wants to talk about something, he doesn't care if I'm asleep or not."

Itsuko smiled as her head rested on his shoulders and her eyes almost closed at the comfort of being close to her beloved.

"I see…so, can we go back to sleep now. I am missing my favorite pillow right now."

Naruto smiled and nodded, before accepting her hand leading him towards the bed. Naruto would then hug her from behind and kiss her neck, affectionately.

The couple went to bed soon afterward with Itsuko resting her head on his chest.

===In the outskirts of Konoha===

The next day, in the village, or rather throughout the outskirts of Konoha, two groups of shinobi were busy scouting the region for any possible intruders.

It was a mandatory procedure established by the Hokage to run these drills every day, at least three times a day, so as not to get caught unaware of any enemy attempting to lurk inside the village walls. Of course, that was not the village's entire defense system, but merely the first stage. The group of four shinobi would scout the entire forest, until they reached the meeting with the other team. As much of a pain in the ass as it was for the ones chosen in the rotation of Chuunin, at least the village became better aware.

The first group was already waiting for the second to report, close to an abandoned house just close to the gates.

The Jonin responsible for the Chuunin's supervision was taking a seat, just waiting for the second group to report when he heard the familiar shunshin.

"Scouting complete, shisho…same as usual, nothing suspicious to report." The Jonin nodded and turned to his other comrades with a nod, before smiling and looking upward at the beautiful sky today.

"Well, It's another nice day! I guess I shall start on that report that's due…everyone dismissed."

The group nodded to one another, before vanishing, leaving the Jounin and three other Chuunin to return to the village and finish their scouting.

"Hmmm, I can't finish and go straight to the pub for a cold one, huh Takashi!" Said the one wearing a blue bandana over his head.

Takashi wore the usual standard Konoha attire and had red hair.

"Fine by me, Isoda! But you're paying this time." The Chuunin named Isoda took a step back at that.

"Oi, you still owe me money…I bought the last round, remember." Takashi just chuckled at his friend's misery.

"Oh come on, don't be such a killjoy…you're ruining our fun here." The rest of the group was just enjoying the fun of seeing the good friends bickering. Normally, one would berate them for lowering their guard like that, since they were still on duty. However, there was no enemy presence in the area and the village walls towered over them in all its majesty. The group could even hear the laughful joy and chatting of the village residents from where they stood. Surely, there wouldn't be any surprises here, as they were soon to get inside the village walls.

That is, until a man with orange haired man with spinning orbs for eyes, wearing dark robes with red clouds, surged in front of the group and charged.

The one in the front could do nothing as he was stabbed to death in less than a second.

The others did try to amass some sort of defense, but all of them met the same fate in the end. As soon as Pein killed the last one, the other five Pein bodies landed behind him, followed by Konan.

"From here on out, we'll divide into two teams: diversion and search. Diversions will be made of Shurado, Chikusodo and Gakido." The Shurado body had a big smile on his face, was bald and had spikes all over his head. Chikusodo looked like it was female with orange hair tied by a knot on top. Lastly, Gakido also had orange hair, a small beard and spikes on his ears. "Search will be composed of Tendo, Ningendo and Jigokudo." Tendo appeared to be the one that was speaking to the others, while Ningendo had long straight orange hair and lastly Jigokudo had also spiky orange hair, slightly longer than Tendo. "Konan, you shall go with the search team."

The only living person of the group accepted the directive, before Tendo activated his Rinnegan, before the image lit up in front of him.

"Hmmm, it appears that Konoha is surrounded by a spherical barrier that includes underground and aerial coverage. I bet it was made by thinking about our members."

Tendo Pein reported, before Konan concluded.

"Which means that anyone who enters without permission, will be detected immediately."

"As planned, we shall launch Chikusodo into the Hidden Leaf's aerial space. We will confuse the enemy by not giving them an accurate count of the invading force. We shall wait for Chikusodo's summoning."

"I was told that Itachi and Kisame infiltrated quite easily." Tendo nodded as Shurado moved behind Chikusodo, who got into position, ready to be somersaulted.

"Itachi belonged to ANBU Black Ops, thus he had knowledge of the organization's hidden tunnels. A bit of information he took to the grave, I'm afraid. I, on the other hand, have my own way of doing things." Konan had already turned into paper the moment that Chikosudo lined up to be thrown by Shurado. Their goal was to find and capture the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki and there was no line they would not cross to get him.

"Starting here, the world will know Pain!"

Tendo announced, before Shurado catapulted Chikosudo towards the hidden village's aerial space.

Author Note

Ok, that's it for now.

I know this chapter was somewhat short and it was by design…I wanted to focus on the entire invasion in the next chapter. It's quite exciting to write an entire chapter filled with action, but it's also quite hard work to put everything that needs to be done. I do have the last scene in my mind, which I believe it's going to be awesome. But, I shall save my comments for now. Wouldn't want to spoil it in advance. It won't be the same as canon, of course, since a few differences are obvious. In the end, I have the confidence that my reader shall enjoy it tremendously. I just hope to do justice to all of you.

Please tell me your thoughts.

Furthermore, I hereby wish everyone, happy holidays.

Please take care of yourselves and your loved ones.

Covid appears to make its face known once more, so please get vaccinated if you haven't already. Aside from that, stay safe…reach out to others as many times as you can…reach out to others who you know could use a comforting hug…let them know that whatever is going on in their lives shall one day pass and the pain will stop. Calling out for help as well is just as important as reaching out to others. Focus foremost on your mental health and seek every single opportunity available to get out and exercise. A simple walk, sometimes, towards any direction or no direction at all, can do wonders for the mind.

I know I don't talk about this much, but I feel nowadays it is important.

There are many invisible hazards in the world that are invisible and sometimes, these harms are caused by our own actions or omissions and it hits us and our loved ones deeper, because of it.

Once again, happy holidays to everyone and may 2023 be better for everyone.

Lastly, I have recently created a P-atreon account for those who wish to follow my stories more personally, sending suggestions and occasional polls to help me.

Also, for those who wish to make a pledge there, it would be greatly appreciated.

P-atreon Account: Anime-Enthusiast

Next update: Nidaime no Sairin